After signing up for the National Bone Marrow Registry “Be The Match,” a Montclair man was recently called to donate peripheral blood stem cells for a sick child. He was inspired to join the registry after an anonymous donor saved the life of his own son, who had received a bone marrow transplant.

After signing up for the National Bone Marrow Registry “Be The Match,” a Montclair man was recently called to donate peripheral blood stem cells for a sick child. He was inspired to join the registry after an anonymous donor saved the life of his own son, who received a bone marrow transplant at Memorial Sloan Kettering when he was just 14 months old. Here’s an excerpt:

Jiro Okochi [recently] donated some of his bone marrow in a simple procedure not unlike a platelet or plasma donation. All he knows about the recipient is her age. He hopes to meet her in a year, but already knows how she and her family might be feeling about what he did. Four years ago, an anonymous gift of bone marrow saved the life of Jiro’s 1-year-old son, Finn. The registry keeps donor and recipient unknown to each other until a year after the transplant, and only if both sides agree do they share the information. When their year had passed, the Okochis learned their son’s donor was named Melissa Budd … ”One of the glories of dealing with parents of kids who’ve gotten transplants,” said Richard O’Reilly [Chair of Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Department of Pediatrics], “is you get to meet some incredible humanity.”

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